1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet feeding device that feeds a recording medium and to a recording apparatus comprising the sheet feeding device, and, in particular, to the sheet feeding of the recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
As with most other devices, there is significant market demand for miniaturized, lightweight recording apparatuses and reflecting this, miniaturization and decreased weight in recording apparatuses are advanced.
In the pursuit of such miniaturization, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-183582 and others, devices have been invented in which the auto sheet feeder (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cASFxe2x80x9d), which is the sheet feeding device for feeding multiple sheets of the recording medium one by one (one sheet at a time) into the image forming portion of the printer is separated from the printer (recording apparatus main body) for recording images and stands alone as an ASF externally attachable to the printer.
ASF which can be used by attaching not only to a miniature printer but also to the outside of a printer with multiple sheet feeding apertures or to a printer with manual sheet feeding only also currently exist.
Also, in such printers the standard width of the sheets (sheet standard) must be uniform when the sheets are manually fed by the printer as a single unit or when the sheets are automatically fed by the ASF attached to the printer.
When the sheets are fed manually, the user feeds sheets by hand while the side edge portion of the sheet is maintained along the sheet standard. To the contrary, when the sheets are fed automatically with ASF, it is extremely difficult to maintained the side edge portion of the sheet along the sheet standard for the manual sheet feeding within measurement tolerance. Therefore, extremely precise parts and adjustments are necessary to accomplish aligned feeding in conventional ASF, and high cost and great complexity are unavoidable.
As a result, sheet feeding apertures have conventionally been separated into manual and ASF and sheet positioning performed according to each sheet standard. However, though it is possible to separate a manual sheet feeding aperture and an ASF sheet feeding aperture in relatively large devices, there is not enough space for separate sheet feeding apertures in super-miniature printers such as portable mobile printers, and the common sheet feeding aperture must be used.
However, when the common sheet feeding aperture is used and the common sheet guide is shared, if sheets are fed from the ASF, the side edge portion of the sheets interfere with the sheet standard by measurement tolerance and skew feeding, and inconveniences such as skew feeding and damage to the sheet edge portion or sheet jams arise.
An object of the present invention is to solve such inconveniences and to provide an ASF that can feed sheets into a recording apparatus without causing damage or jams and an image formation device comprising it.
The present invention provides a recording apparatus having a recording apparatus main body comprising a sheet feeding aperture which can record an image on a sheet manually fed from the sheet feeding aperture and an auto sheet feeder detachably attached to the recording apparatus main body that can automatically supply sheets to the recording apparatus main body through the sheet feeding aperture, which has a positioning means for manual sheet feeding for aligning the sheet feeding position by restricting the sides of the sheets fed manually from the sheet feeding aperture and an automatic sheet feeding positioning means for aligning the sheet feeding position by restricting sides of the sheets supplied automatically into the recording apparatus main body with the auto sheet feeder attached, and is constructed such that the sheets supplied by the auto sheet feeder do not abut against the positioning means for manual sheet feeding when the auto sheet feeder is attached to the recording apparatus main body.
The present invention is also constructed such that when the auto sheet feeder is attached to the recording apparatus main body, the positioning means for manual sheet feeding can be retracted so that the sheets supplied from the ASF do not abut against the positioning means for manual sheet feeding. In the present invention, the positioning means for manual sheet feeding can also be retracted to the side of the pass through which the sheets supplied from the ASF path.
As the positioning means for manual sheet feeding of the present invention a sheet feeding tray for supporting the sheets manually fed from the sheet feeding aperture is attached and a tray receiver is provided on the auto sheet feeder main body for receiving the sheet feeding tray such that the sheet feeding tray can be retracted below the pass when the auto sheet feeder is attached to the main body of the recording apparatus.